THE TOLTEC TEACHINGS
Volume V
The Warrior's Path is a path of freedom. Yet, for warriors, freedom is not just a mystical nebulous concept. True freedom needs to be fought for, and attained. In this fifth volume, Théun lifts the veils of myth as he takes the reader back to the roots of freedom buried within another time, another place. Having gone back to the very beginning, Théun goes on to show what freedom means in the world today, and how, in practical terms, we can set about achieving it in our lives. All the teachings and techniques bring us to a final point, a gateway. At this point, we can either step through to our new life, or we can perish in what we know to be the old.
ISBN 0-958-4675-5-2
This book was first published in 2002 under the title Shadows of Wolf Fire.
EXTRACTS FROM VOLUME V
CONTENTS
Preface i
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 - The Warrior's Path Defined 9
Narration of the Rule of the Four-Pronged Nagal
Section One : The Nagal
Chapter 2 - Rule of the Four-Pronged Nagal : First Contact with the Void 37
Explanation of the Rule of the Four-Pronged Nagal
Section Two : The Tonal
Chapter 3 - Rule of the Four: The First Insight 49
Chapter 4 - Rule of the Four: The Second Insight 75
Chapter 5 - Rule of the Four: The Third Insight 101
Chapter 6 - Rule of the Four: The Fourth Insight 127
Narration of the Rule of the Three-Pronged Nagal
Section One : The Nagal
Chapter 7 - Rule of the Three-Pronged Nagal : Second Contact with the Void 147
Explanation of the Rule of the Three-Pronged Nagal
Section Two : The Tonal
Chapter 8 - Rule of the Three : Preliminary Comments 155
Chapter 9 - Rule of the Three : The First Insight 167
Chapter 10 - Rule of the Three: The Second Insight 193
Chapter 11 - Rule of the Three: The Third Insight 225
The Sorcerer's Explanation
Chapter 12 - The Sorcerer's Explanation : Preliminary Notes 255
Narration of The Sorcerer's Explanation
Chapter 13 - The Sorcerer's Explanation : Fires of the Forge 265
Chapter 14 - The Sorcerer's Explanation : Hunting for Power 275
Chapter 15 - The Sorcerer's Explanation : The Bid for Power 289
Chapter 16 - The Sorcerer's Explanation : The Gateway to the Nagal's World 305
Index 313
EXTRACT FROM INTRODUCTION
If this book is to play a meaningful role in enhancing the reader's perception, and in bringing a greater sense of purpose and a deeper meaning into his or her life, I would like to recommend the following approach to this section of the teachings. Firstly, it is vital for the reader to be fully familiar with the teachings contained in the first four volumes in this series, in the sense that he or she is actively living the teachings and not merely studying them from a passive intellectual angle. Such a student of the teachings will know from experience that the subtleties of the various concepts cannot be grasped unless the teachings are put into practice, and that unless these nuances are grasped, the teachings can become utterly confusing. Needless to say, once confusion has set in, no further progress is possible and the student becomes disheartened.
In addition, when one is trying to grasp the irrational, it is always wise to remember that such knowledge would not be irrational if it could be encapsulated within the limitations of the rational mind. It stands to reason that in trying to grasp the irrational one is going to be stretched beyond one's normal frame of reference, and so plunged headlong into having to wrestle with concepts that at first appear to make no logical sense, and all too often also appear to be contradictory to everything we think we know and therefore assume to be true.
But to be stretched beyond one's frame of reference means having to enter the unknown, and the only way in which we can find our way around within the unknown, is to try to get a feeling, or an intuitive sense of what that particular part of the unknown entails. Without such a feeling we become prone to rationalisation as we attempt to force the unknown into something that must somehow fit logically into what constitutes for us the known. This process leads us not only to distort the new knowledge, but also unconsciously to fall into the trap of using it to confirm to ourselves those preconceived ideas and prejudices that form part of our normal frame of reference.
Another point to bear in mind is that although people assume they know themselves and their world, the truth is that both man and the world are simply not what they appear to be. We are an unfathomable mystery even unto ourselves, and so is the world around us. If this were not true, then there would be no evolution of awareness, and we would not be able to expand our consciousness beyond its present state.
Notice that I use the term, "an unfathomable mystery." I use this term purposely and for two reasons. Firstly, because all awareness depends upon perception, every time our perception changes, so too does our awareness of ourselves, of others, and of the world in general. But because perception is not dictated to by reason alone, it usually follows a course of change which, although yielding answers that can be highly fulfilling and satisfying, also invariably lead us into asking more and more questions about ourselves and about life. Therefore far from the normal assumption that we can wrap ourselves up into a tight little box of self-understanding, the practitioner of the Toltec teachings soon comes to realise that any change in perception and any growth in awareness always serves to prove just how little we really do know about ourselves and the world we live in.
Secondly, inherent within the term "unfathomable mystery," is the realisation that so much of our perception lies beyond the confines of rationality. As a result, our awareness is for ever touching upon the fringes of a vastness that is always just beyond the scope of understanding, no matter how much our awareness expands, and no matter how much we learn about ourselves and about life.
The final point which should be kept in mind all the way through this book is that, if we are truly willing to learn, and if we are truly wanting to enhance our awareness, then we must be willing to stand challenged on our perception of ourselves and of the world we live in. There is simply no other way.
Why? Because it is very easy to acquire new information and still hold onto our view of the world. This is so because unless information is acted upon in some way, it cannot translate into experience, and where there is no experience, that information will remain at the level of information, and in time will be forgotten. But this is not true learning, for no real change has been brought into one's life as a result of having acquired that information. True learning implies that the knowledge gained has the power to change one's thinking and one's life in some meaningful way, and the only way of acquiring such new knowledge is through experience.
The implications here are that unless the teachings contained in this book are put into practice and grasped through experience, they will remain an interesting proposition that has no real value to the reader. Propositions in themselves cannot possibly empower anyone.
If you follow my recommendations, you should have no problem in acquiring a genuine feeling for what is imparted in this volume. Once you have acquired that feeling, allow the circumstances and the events within your life to start translating that feeling, bit by bit, into a growing sense of knowing without knowing. By this I mean that if irrational feelings are allowed to unfold naturally within daily life, then in time they gradually begin to make sense, even though we can never really rationally explain why they do seem to make sense.
However, if, instead of trying to explain and understand such feelings, we simply act upon them, then we very quickly begin to corroborate them through the results achieved. Further, because all action leads to experience, and because experience is knowledge gained, once we do act upon feelings which are perhaps at first not understood, the knowledge gained through that experience will reveal all the understanding we may require.
The problem is that people have become completely conditioned into first wanting to understand something before they are prepared to risk having the experience. But realise that although we are entitled to make such demands when we are working with the known, when it comes to working with the unknown, to make such demands is tantamount to putting the cart before the horse. By definition we cannot possibly know the unknown beforehand, and therefore if we wish to know it, there is simply no other way than through experience. This is especially true of the teachings contained within this book.
